The Trees
by Sailor Dragonball 87
Summary: It was a nice Fall day like any other. While Goten and Trunks were sparring, they find something disturbing in a tree. UPDATE-2-7-17 I added an 's' at the end of the title because the story involves multiple trees.
1. Chapter 1: Fall

**Here's a scary story for ya! PLEASE be nice, it's my first scary story. If you're wondering what the characters are wearing, they're wearing what they were during Resurrection 'F' Saga of DBS. As for any other characters I may include, I'll describe what they're wearing so you don't picture them naked. Also, I will be using 'ki' instead of 'chi' because the story is set in a purely DBZ world and there is no China or Japan. I've seen some clips of DBS on YouTube, so I'm going to use 'ki'. Now, on with the show!**

 **I don't own DBZ, Akira Toriyama does.**

 **Author comments**

 _Thoughts_

Regular text

Flashback

 **Chapter 1: Fall**

 **Mount Paozu, Age 779**

Two familiar boys were sparring under a naked tree late one chilly Fall morning. One of them had black hair that stuck out unevenly in a unique fashion; most of his hair was pushed to the upper right, while the rest of his hair was pushed to the lower left. The other one had lavender hair that was styled in a bowl cut. They were known as Goten, age 12 and Trunks, age 13.

Goten launched a kick at Trunks' head, but his target easily sidestepped the attack. When Trunks sidestepped the attack, he tripped over a tree root and fell backward, landing on his butt. "Oof! OK, Goten…Goten!" But Goten was too focused on their spar to listen. Trunks blocked some more punches from Goten before trying again, "Goten…GOTEN!" Trunks caught one last punch from Goten, which was aimed at his chin, and the younger boy ceased his onslaught. Standing up and putting his hand behind his head "Hehe…sorry Trunks! I guess I got a little carried away." Trunks gave him an understanding smile a said, "Let's take a break, Goten. I'm starting to get hungry. It's almost time for lunch. Let's go see what your mom's making!"

A huge smile appeared on Goten's face, and he said, "Yeah, but we should wash up first." This made Trunks look at him with a puzzled expression and ask, "What do you mean, Goten? We barely broke a sweat." Goten put his hands on his hips like his mother would and raised his left eyebrow and said, "All the same, you still have some sweat on you. And besides that, you've got blood in your hair." Trunks ran his fingers across his scalp and said, "I don't remember getting cut." He felt something wet fall on his wrist. Goten relaxed his arms and stepped back with a horrified look on his face. His expression was warranted by the color of the substance; it was dark red.

Trunks, being the son of a genius, had no problem putting things together. Blood in his hair plus something wet falling on his wrist plus Goten's horrified expression meant he should probably look up. Goten knew what Trunks was thinking; something in the tree was dripping something wet onto Trunks' head. Ever since the fused into Gotenks, they had a mental link. This mental link was like the one that would exist between Saiyan siblings, specifically multiples. The two boys looked at each other with wide eyes. Goten gulped nervously when he saw Trunks nod.

 **Ooo…cliffhanger! What's in the tree? I think you can tell by Goten and Trunks' reactions that it can't be good. That's all I'm 'Saiyan' ;). You'll have to wait for the next chapter to find out what they saw. Let me know what you think! Sailor Dragonball 87 says! ;D**


	2. Chapter 2: The Girl

**Hiya! Here's the next chapter! Oh, this is gonna be so much fun! ;)**

 **I don't own DBZ, Akira Toriyama does.**

 **Author comments**

 _Thoughts_

Regular text

Flashback

 **Chapter 2: The Girl**

 **Trunks' POV**

Goten and I looked up and saw a girl in the tree. There was a broken branch sticking in her side, and she was still alive. She was bleeding badly and in a lot of pain. Neither of us had a cell phone, so Goten flew toward his house to get help. Both our dads were off world, training with Lord Beerus. Goten's mom, Chi-chi, was home, and his brother, Gohan, sister-in-law, Videl, and baby niece, Pan, were visiting. Chi-chi, Gohan, or Videl would call 911. I stayed behind to one, talk to the girl in the tree, and two, to act as a beacon of ki so Goten could find his way back to the tree; I love him like a brother, but he sure is annoying when he gets lost or scared. I just hoped the EMTs could get here before the girl died.

"Um…miss, what happened?" I asked. "I w-was gr-rabbed in a-an al-ly by a m-monster," she replied. I could tell it hurt when she talked, so I wasn't going to ask her any more questions–in fact, I tried to get her to be quiet. "OK, I think you should be quite, because it looks like you're in pain," I said. "Th-thanks, but I n-need…*slow gasp*…to s-say thi-is…*cough, cough, cough, cough*…s-somethi-ing long and gre-en…*slow gasp*…wra-apped around my n-neck…*slow gasp*…fle-ew me he-re…" I could see where this was going. I pieced together that the monster either broke a branch or found one that was broken and skewered her on it. I cut her off mid-sentence and said, "If you don't stop talking, you're going to bleed to death!"

 **Goten's POV**

I took off in the direction of home as fast as I could. When I got there, I yelled, "MOM! CALL 911! C'MON, GOHAN, YOU GOTTA HELP HER! SHE'S STUCK IN A TREE, AND SHE'S BLEEDING!" My brother came up to me and said, "Whoa, buddy! Who needs help?" His hands were on my shoulders as my mom went inside to call 911. "There's a lady stuck on a broken tree branch. She's bleeding, but still alive. This is bad! You have to help her, or at least try! Trunks is with her, so you can lock on to his ki." I looked at him with the same puppy dog eyes that Dad sometimes uses on Mom. Gohan sighed and said, "I'll go check it out. Wait here, Goten. I have a bad feeling that something bad's gonna happen." He left before I could say anything, so I stayed there.

 **Gohan's POV**

I flew toward Trunks at top speed. When I arrived, I saw a girl in a tree with brown hair. She was wearing a yellow top, white pants, light blue and white running shoes, and a red jacket. A branch had been broken off of the tree, and the section of branch that was still attached to the tree was sticking in her side. She was bleeding heavily from her side. "Uh…miss…" I trailed off when she opened her quivering eyes just enough so that I could tell they were green. I paused to think about where I've seen her before. It took me a minute realize that she was a guest at my wedding, and I knew her before then. My eyes widened as I exclaimed, "LIME!?" She half-smiled and said, "H-hey, Go-han." That was the last thing she ever said.

 **Oh no! Poor Lime! Oh man, I hope Gohan doesn't go down for this. C'mon guys, leave a review. Tell me what you think. Sailor Dragonball 87 says! ;D**


	3. Chapter 3: Another One!

**Hi! Here's another chapter for ya! On the CU forum, WargishBoromirFan tried to explain why I should separate characters' dialog with paragraphs. While I didn't get the explanation of giving each character their own paragraph, I have seen the effect that doing this has in other fics. I thought I was doing a good enough job clarifying who's talking. I like the effect it has in my writing. Thanks, Warg! Now, onto the fic!**

 **I don't own DBZ, Akira Toriyama does.**

 **Author comments**

 _Thoughts_

Regular text

Flashback

 **Chapter 3: Another One?!**

Gohan and Trunks were standing in the woods staring at Lime as she drew her last breath. The two demi-Saiyans lowered their heads in respect as they felt her ki snuffed out by death. After a short silence, Trunks was the first to speak. He explained everything that Lime had said before she died. By that time, Gohan's enhanced Saiyan hearing picked up the sounds of sirens and helicopters; the Mt. Paozu area was so secluded that there were no roads for the police cars. Then, he sensed a familiar ki in the direction of Capsule Corp. It was heading toward their location.

 _Looks like Mom called Bulma to come pick Trunks up. After what just happened, I don't blame her,_ Gohan thought to himself. Then he turned to Trunks and said, "Trunks, go back to my mom's house and say goodbye to Goten. Your mom's coming to pick you up."

Trunks noticed his mom's ki getting closer. He looked at Gohan with a disappointed expression on his face. This did not go unnoticed by Gohan. "Huh? What's the matter, Trunks?" he asked.

Trunks turned his head forward. "Gohan, do you think I can watch them take the body down?"

Gohan looked at him wide-eyed and exclaimed, "TRUNKS, SHE'S A HUMAN BEING, NOT A STRAY ANIMAL!"

Trunks gave him a surprised look. _I didn't expect him to react like that. I just wanted to watch the cops take the body down because Dad said a great warrior should be accustomed to seeing death so it doesn't affect them on the battlefield._

Gohan scratched his head and asked, "Why do you wanna see…" His voice trailed off. He bowed his head, sweat dropped, and put up his hand. "Never mind," he said as he shook his head. _Like father, like son_ , he thought with a sigh. "I'll see what I can do." This made Trunks smile in triumph.

When Bulma's air-car came into Gohan's view, he flew up to meet her and talk to her through the driver's side window. Gohan told her what Trunks had said, and although Bulma thought that seeing a bloody dead body might negatively affect her son, she knew there was nothing she could do about it. Trunks would find a way to watch the removal of the body one way or another. This much she had learned from years of living with the Prince of all Saiyans.

The police arrived about twenty minutes later to process the crime scene, collect evidence and Lime's body, and take statements. Trunks watched them remove Lime's body from the tree with feigned indifference; he seemed rather complacent on the outside, but he just wanted to turn away on the inside. The officer in charge, a woman named Lieutenant Kana Shonin, walked the .12 of a mile back to Chi-chi's house. On the way, Trunks explained how he and Goten discovered the body. The lavender-haired boy also relayed what Lime had told him before she died. When the police were finished gathering all the information that was pertinent to their case, they left Mount Paozu.

Four days later, Gohan and his wife, Videl, took Chi-chi up on her offer to babysit Pan so they could have some time to themselves. The new parents went for a walk in the woods far from where Lime's body was found.

"I feel like we should be using this time to take naps," said Videl with a small smile. That smile widened when she heard her husband chuckle. The couple stopped walking.

"Well, how about we fly back to our apartment right now?" Gohan asked as he walked from his place beside his wife until he was facing her.

Videl smiled and giggled. She took a step closer to her husband as she said, "I think that sounds like an excellent idea."

Gohan stepped closer to her. He embraced his wife and she put her arms around his neck. "I love you," he said as she laid her head on his chest.

"I love you too," Videl said with a blissful sigh.

Gohan inhaled to take in her intoxicating scent. Unfortunately, he picked up another scent. His Saiyan sense of smell allowed him to pick up what a human nose couldn't. It was putrid and reminiscent of death.

Videl felt her husband's body tense up. "Gohan, what is it?" she asked cautiously.

"Videl," Gohan said as he pulled away from his wife, "go back to my mom's house as fast as you can," he stated flatly.

"I'm not going anywhere," said Videl defiantly.

Gohan sighed and said, "OK, but stay behind me and stay alert."

Videl gave her husband an affirming nod and followed behind him as he followed the offensive odder the scent became stronger. Videl started smell the stench some 35 yards away from where Gohan detected it. After that, they walked for about five more minutes until they saw the source of the smell.

They saw the body of a muscular man with blond hair in a tank top and workout pants hanging in a tree. There was no rope holding him up; his upper torso was lying across a thick branch and a slightly smaller branch held his knees forward, so it looked like he was in the act of siting down. There were a puncture wounds in his neck and bellow his diaphragm, and any others were hidden by the branch.

"Another one?!" Gohan muttered as Videl walked around him to see the dead man's face. Gohan followed suit.

Videl stopped when she was facing the body. She gasped and covered her mouth as her eyes bulged. She crashed into her husband's chest and started to cry.

"Oh no, Sharpener." Gohan said as he held his wife close.

 **Hiya! As I said above, I don't understand the necessity of giving characters their own paragraphs, but I do understand the function, and that's good enough for me! I'll give you a hint as to who's next on my hit list: she went to high school with Gohan. Don't forget to leave a review! Sailor Dragonball 87 says! ;D**


	4. Chapter 4: Chi-chi Finds Another One

**I don't own DBZ, Akira Toriyama does.**

 **Author comments**

 _Thoughts_

Regular text

Flashback

 **Chapter 4:**

It was around the start of winter, and there hadn't been any murders for about two weeks. That was about to change.

Chi-chi had just come home from shopping. Goten wasn't in school due to being sick the previous few days. He was getting over his illness, but Chi-chi wanted to keep him home an extra day just to be safe.

"Goten, will you please come help me with the groceries?" Chi-chi asked, carrying two bags.

"Yes, Mom!" he called from inside the house. A second later, he was outside by the car hungrily eyeing the groceries.

"And no sneaking from the bag this time, OK?" Chi-chi said sternly.

The boy moaned and pouted. He was definitely his father's son.

 _She didn't say anything about smelling the groceries_ , Goten thought with a devious grin. He took a deep breath though his nose, expecting to smell bread and fresh greens. Instead, a putrid stench entered his nostrils. He covered his nose and mouth in an attempt to block out the offending smell, but to know avail. "Ewww. Bom, what's that sbell!? It's like something died!" he exclaimed in a muffled voice through a pinched nose.

Chi-chi was nearly inside the house, holding a bag that contained dairy products. "Huh?" She turned back and thought, _That's weird_. She gasped as her eyes grew wide. She turned counter-clockwise and ran to Goten "Uh, everything's going to be OK, sweetie. Will you please carry both of these bags?" Goten looked at her with a questioning face. "Don't look at me like that. I know you can. Now, you just carry them inside and put them on the table, and then come get some more. I'll be in soon. I have to make a phone call," she said quickly. "And don't look around. Keep looking straight ahead." She didn't want Goten being traumatized further by seeing another dead body.

While Goten took the groceries in, Chi-chi walked around and tried to smell for the sent Goten had picked up. Goten's sense of smell was way better than her's, due to him being half Saiyan. She wanted to make sure that it was a body her son smelled, not some dead wild animal, before calling the police; she didn't want to waste their time.

First, she went toward the tree line that was far from the front door. She could smell nothing to the right or left of her. She even went a little ways into the woods. Eventually, she made her way to the area behind the house. About twenty-five feet behind the tree line was a body, draped forward over a tree branch where it diverged from the trunk. This body was female and headless. Her pink shirt clung to her curves from the melted snow that used to cover her. A bit of the top of her jeans were wet, too. Her elbows were bent, but the left was bent more than the right. Her fingers were bent and facing each other. There was a short, bloody sump where her head was. Blood was spattered down her arms and, more heavily, across her shoulders and shirt.

"Oh!" Chi-chi gasped loudly. She walked backward quickly and stumbled over a tree root, but got right back up and ran to the clearing that surrounded her house. She pulled out her cell phone to call 911. She was glade that it got reception in the remote area she lived in. After calling 911 and explaining the emergency, she went inside the house to put her groceries away.

The police arrive some twenty minutes later. They conducted interviews, gathered all the evidence they needed, and took the body to the morgue. Nobody knew where the head was. The identity of the body remained unknown until nearly five days later. The victim was revealed to be twenty-two-year-old Angela Fudu, former student of Orange Star High School.

 **There ya go! Another chapter, another body. Poor Angela. Bear with me. There is a method to my madness. Let me know what you think. Sailor Dragonball 87 says! ;-D**


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